Friday, 23 December 2016

Ralph Vaughan Williams: The First Nowell – a Nativity Play

At Christmastide, I try to listen
to several pieces of music. These include J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Gerald Finzi’s In Terra Pax, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Hodie, the seasonal parts of Messiah
and Marc-Antoine Charpentier Messe
de Minuit pour Noël.

In my early days of listening to
classical music, I heard a broadcast on BBC Radio 4 of Ralph Vaughan Williams’
music for the nativity play, The First
Nowell. It was broadcast on 23 December 1973. I immediately warmed to this piece, feeling
that it embodied much of the spirit of Christmas. I never heard this music
again until 2006, when the Chandos record label issued it on a CD of Christmas
music. It has become one of my ‘must
hear’ pieces for the season.

As a matter of detail, the
version of The First Nowell that I
heard in 1973 featured Sally le Sage and John Carol Case, both sadly no longer
alive. The Serenata of London was conducted by Bernard Keefe.

Ursula Vaughan Williams, in her
biography of RVW (OUP, 1964/1988) wrote: ‘Simona Pakenham [friend, and author
of an appreciation of the composer] and her husband Noel Iliff bicycled over
from Kensington to ask Ralph to provide music for a script Simona had made from
medieval mystery plays.’ It was a ‘short Christmas piece that needed carol
tunes and incidental music.’ The score had to be completed ‘by November for the
singers to learn in time for a December matinee…’

The liner notes for the Chandos
CD quotes Simona Pakenham’s explanation of the work’s genesis: ‘In early July
1958, I was asked by Austin Williams, the vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, to
persuade Vaughan Williams to collaborate with me on the writing of a nativity
play. This was to be given at a matinee at Drury Lane Theatre on 19 December in
support of the Ockendon Venture – a charity that was building a village to
house refugee children. I hesitated to put this to Vaughan Williams because I
knew he was always busy with the composition of the moment… I went to tea at
Hanover Terrace on 6 July and I was astonished that he considered the idea at
all. The mere mention of Christmas inspired him. He had a passion for carols.’

Vaughan Williams did protest
about the small size of the Drury Lane orchestra pit. He wrote to Simona
Pakenham (24 August 1958): Very MUCH AGAINST MY WILL. I have arranged for an
orchestra of 32…’ (ed. Cobbe, Hugh, Letters
of Ralph Vaughan Williams 1895-1958, Oxford, 2008). In a footnote, Cobbe
states that the theatre management had insisted that the stage and orchestra
pit layout for My Fair Lady would not
be altered during the charity event.

The composer died two days after
posting this letter.

The First Nowell was to be RVWs last ‘completed’ work.’ Due to the
death of the composer, Roy Douglas, his amanuensis, was asked to complete and
edit the work, so as not to disappoint the singers. When the score was examined
it was found to be three-quarters complete (Douglas, Roy, Working with RVW, OUP, 1972) with fragmentary sketches (very rough)
made for the remainder. Douglas had to
recreate the Procession of the Three Kings and some extra bars that were
required for the ‘theatrical business’, which had to be done in ‘imitation
Vaughan Williams.’ He wrote that the
work was ‘completed from ‘first sketches, second drafts, third thoughts and
semi-final scores.’’ The score, published by Oxford University Press in 1959, is
clearly marked with details of what sections were composed by R.V.W. and those completed
by R.D. (Roy Douglas). Douglas did not
want ‘posterity [to blame RVW] for my shortcomings.’ Bearing in mind the false
rumours that had circulated after the war that Roy Douglas had orchestrated the
elder composer’s symphonies, it was hardly surprising.

Ursula Vaughan Williams (op. cit.)
noted that RVW ‘liked Simona’s choice of episodes and immediately started
thinking about tunes to fit…he went to the box-room for carol books to start on
it at once.’ Interestingly, she states that RVW was asked to take part, playing
God and the eldest Shepherd, however he declined suggesting that ‘he’d stick to
the music.’

The play gives the story of
Christ’s birth - from the Annunciation through to the visit of the Magi at the Epiphany.
It consists of spoken and singing parts, lasting for some 50 minutes. The
concert version, which excludes dialogue, features a selection of 12 numbers:
The score suggests that three more may be included ‘if wished.’ This lasts for just under half an hour and
features soprano, baritone, mixed choir and orchestra.

John Cook (RVW Society Journal, October 2015) has reminded the listener that
Pakenham insisted that the libretto was not ‘biblically accurate’. Nor was it
intended to use ‘biblical’ props or costumes. She suggested that ‘any period of
English costume between the thirteenth and the fifteenth century is suitable.’

Michael Kennedy’s catalogue of
the composer’s music give the details of Vaughan Williams use of several traditional
‘Christmas’ tunes in his arrangement, including ‘God rest you merry, gentlemen’
‘The Truth sent from above,’ ‘Angelus ad virginem’, the Salutation Carol, ‘Nowell,
Nowell…, which is used to set the greeting of the angel Gabriel,’ two incarnations
of ‘The Cherry Tree Carol,’ ‘As Joseph was walking,’ ‘A virgin most pure,’ ‘The
Sussex Carol,’ and ‘How brightly shone the morning star’ in RVW's own translation.
The work concludes with a beautiful version of The First Nowell. Clearly, the
composer had compounded familiar tunes with rarities.

RVW once said: ‘I think that
every Christmas play ought to begin with ‘God rest you Merry [Gentlemen]’ and
end with ‘The First Nowell’’: he uses this formula here to great effect.

The First Nowell was premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane,
London on 19 December 1958. It was performed by several soloists and speakers
including Geraint Evans and John Westbrook. The St Martin-in-the-Fields Concert
Orchestra and Singers were conducted by John Churchill.

Frank Howes reviewed the premiere
of The First Nowell in the The Times (20 December 1958). He began
by reporting that ‘actors, musicians, dancers and comedians of the London
theatre had contributed their arts and skills to raising £4000 [about £70,000
in 2016] for the refugee fund. From a musical point of view, Howes suggests
that it has some resemblance to Rutland Boughton’s music drama Bethlehem (1915) although it was ‘less
opera, more play.’ John Churchill, then
organist of St Martin’s-in-the-Field, led the assembled forces ‘with authentic
feeling for this music, formally so simple, emotionally so rich.’ He noted Roy
Douglas’s contribution in completing the work. Douglas ‘knew Vaughan Williams’s
mind and, perhaps a rarer accomplishment, could read his handwriting’

As for the text, Howes felt that
it was ‘direct and so avoids preciosity.’ He noted that it incorporated ‘the
comedy of the shepherds in their fields abiding with Mr. George Rose to impart
a rustic accent to it…’ However, the libretto dealt ‘restrainedly with Joseph…’
and gave the Virgin Mary a ‘dignified simplicity.’

The Chandos CD (CHAN 10385) of The First Nowell is coupled with the
equally attractive On Christmas Night
composed in 1926 and the well-known Fantasia
on Christmas Carols dating from 1912. Richard Hickox conducted the City of
London Sinfonia, the Joyful Company of Singers, the soprano Sarah Fox and
baritone Roderick Williams.

The editor of the Gramophone (December 2006) made the CD
his ‘editor’s choice’ for the month: ‘There is no better way to get into the
Christmas spirit than this enchanting RVW disc, which contains some delightful rarities…With
glowing playing and singing under the baton of Richard Hickox, there is plenty
for the head as well as the Christmas heart.’

On the website, Classical Net, Steve Schwartz suggests
that listeners should not expect another Hodie
but points out that the arrangement of the music is simpler, less ambitious and
largely straightforward.

Finally, Stephen Connock, in the
liner notes (CHAN 10385) provides an ideal summary of The First Nowell’s appeal: ‘Vaughan Williams’s Christmas music in
its freshness and warmth speaks directly to the heart. It is music to be played
and cherished on Christmas Eve, at home, near the fire, with children safe and
all at heart’s-ease.’

About Me

I am well over fifty years old: the end of the run of baby boomers! I was born in Glasgow, moving south to York in the late ‘seventies. I now work in London.
My main interest is British Music from the nineteenth century onwards.
I love the ‘arch-typical’ English countryside – and have always wanted to ‘Go West, Boy’.
A. E. Housman and the ‘Georgian’ poets are a huge influence on my aesthetic. I have spent much of my life looking for the ‘Land of Lost Content’ and only occasionally glimpsed it…somewhere in…???
My recently published work includes essays on Ivor Gurney’s song ‘On Wenlock Edge’ for the Gurney Society Journal, The Music of Marion Scott and a study of Janet Hamilton’s songs for the British Music Society Journal, and the composer Muriel Herbert for the Housman Society.
I have contributed to the journals of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, the Finzi Society, and the Bliss Society, the Berkeley Society, the BMS Newsletter and regular CD reviews for MusicWeb International.